How to Segment an Orange

Learn how to segment an orange in this video from EVERY DAY WITH RACHAEL RAY magazine, plus get tricks and tips on the best way to cut and slice oranges. From our collection of Step by Step cooking videos.

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-Hi there, I'm Teri Tsang, the food editor here at Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine and I'm going to teach you how to get the most out of an orange. First, you can always get zest, which is perfect for tossing over soup, adding in to different stews. You can even sprinkle in salads, quick breads. The rind and the zest actually contain a lot of the natural juices and oils from the citrus and they filled with flavor. The easiest way of doing this is the use of Microplane zester and you just wanna work. Actually, it might be a little bit easier over a sheet of wax paper to collect the zest as you go. You can use any old grater, but these microplane zesters are amazingly quick and really simple to use and they're available anywhere we buy cookware. If you're here with me in the kitchen, you could smell all the orange, aromas floating through the air. You'll see that I've only zest sort of the shiny peel of the orange. The reason why is that this is the pith where the orange actually starts to get really better and you don't wanna over zest an orange and end up with better pith. The same apply to grapefruit, lemons, and limes. I was finished up with zest, you can set this aside. Another good tip for keeping zest in moist is wrap it in a paper towel and just store in the fridge until you're ready to use it. Next, just take a slicing knife. You're gonna lap off about half an inch from the top of the orange as well as the bottom. So, we're gonna cut up a little bit more. You wanna be with the-- the top of the orange and cut a pair little piece from the other end and there you see the bottom of the orange. Stand the orange upright and just get up nice and close with the orange. We're gonna cut downwards in a curved motion cutting along the body of the orange. And from here, you wanna cut flesh to the line between the actual orange membrane as well as the skin. It's also nice to kind of keep a firm and gentle press on the orange. If hold on too tight, you have a-- you'll have a tendency to sort of squeeze out the juice from the orange, but otherwise we just hold it in place so we'll be able to rotate it easily without losing control. If you've missed any part, just look over any orange, repeat the same step. Next, I'm going to show how to segment the orange. These are the membranes of the orange. And what you're gonna want to do is cut in between in like a V motion so starting on this side and work over a bowl so you can collect the juices as well to segment. And segment should pop right. So just work your way around the orange collecting the membrane with your other thumb as you go. Orange segments are great on salads, again in all sorts of baked goods. They also go really well with porkloin and pork chops. You can also do with some grapefruit segment and this is really one of the easiest cooking tricks under the sun and it's great for pick eaters that don't like skin and salads and things like that. And this just makes a nice presentation in your food. As you can see in the bowl, we've not only collected the orange segments with a lot of juice as well. And our last step is to squeeze all the juice from the membrane. Be sure to wash your hands. So now you've got zest, the segment, and the juice and you've gotten the most out of your orange.